This Time Is Different
by SpacedOutAnna
Summary: Pure J/E fluff, written on a lazy Sunday night. Julian muses after a shift.
1. Default Chapter

This Time Is Different

By Anna Bailie [sarcasticspice@julianezri.zzn.com][1]

This is pure fluff. I wrote this in a sentimental mood on a lazy Sunday night. Please excuse me for it. 

All characters excluding one ( you'll guess who) belong to Paramount in all it's wisdom *snort* and I make no claim on any of the other ones. I have no money, please don't sue me.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the story!

In his career, Julian Bashir was quite experienced towards the delivery of babies. Just in the past 9 years, the duration of his tenure at Deep Space Nine, he had delivered 43 babies. He had also smiled at 39 mothers as they slumbered after their long labours and had smiled and offered congratulations to the 26 new fathers. For two of those fathers he had shook them out of the shock after delivering the knowledge that they would be having twins; mothers seemed to take that new better. Julian had held most of the children on this station during their first few moments of life and revelled in the knowledge of it. But, this time was different.

He had counted ten fingers and ten toes for 43 children. He had counted the ridges on the Bajoran's children's noses. He had caluclated their eventual heights and he had smiled over slumbering children in his care so many times he couldn't count. And every child was different, every child special in their own unique way. But, this one was different.

As Julian put away the scissors he had used so many times to cut umbilical cords put away he pondered this. This time was ulitmately different. He moved over to the child in the bassinet next to it's mother's bed. This one was different, but only for Julian.

The child had a warm complexion with signs of black hair. When it opened its eyes Julian marvelled at the blue of them; he firmly believed they would stay that colour. The little girl's ears were flat against her head and Julian remebered how she had squalled when she had finally come out after her mother being in labour for a near record of 51 hours. You had to look carefully but you could faintly see brown spots making their way down the little girl's head and body. It was those spots Julian found most dear.

Looking up a bit he made sure Ezri was still sleeping soundly after her trial. She had yelled at him the entire time, calling it all his fault. Julian had just grinned which seemed to vex her even more. But between contractions, Ezri had apologized. Julian had heard women scream at the father's of their children many times, even when he had sat in on births during his training. But when his own wife was screaming at him with their child comiing out of her vaginal canal, it was different.

Looking back to his daughter- _daughter._ The word seemed strange to him, even nine months after he had looked, shocked , up from the tricorder to meet Ezri's expectant eyes and told her in hushed, awed tones, "You're pregnant." The joy that had welled up in Ezri's eyes and inside him was one of the most satisfying feelings he had ever felt. 

But still, he loved to roll the word around his head while wtaching the little girl, trundled up in pink blankets. She was, and always would be, his. He would be a constant in her life- forever and ever and she would be a constant in his. He would patch up her scraped elbow as she looked on him with adoring eyes and he would give her the doll she had longed for. She would be his little girl. He knew this day would never leave his memory. 

Ezri had told him, once, of her torture by the Breen where they extracted all of her memories and, delirious, she had gone through them. Julian knew that if something like that would ever happen to him he would shout in a cold, dark cell, "It's a girl!" And he wouldn't care if the Breen, or whover had tortured him, found out. He wanted all the Alpha Quadrant to know. He was father and he had daughter who was more precious and beautiful than anyone in the Quadrant, excluding Ezri of course.

Leaving his daughter he made his way over to Ezri's biobed. He studied the readings carefully. The pregnancy had been difficult for Ezri and there had been times during the delivery when Julian had been afraid they were going to lose her. It was moments like that when he felt his heart being clutched by what felt like ice. But now Ezri slept peacefully as her heart rates and other reading slowly went back up to the normal range. Brushing a lock of hair off her forehead Julian pondered the last two years where he had been lucky enough to know, and love, her. There were other memories Julian would always cherish. The light in her eyes that first, of many, mornings. The way she laughed. The look on her face when he had proposed in the middle of Quark's- and the relief when she had nearly shouted "Yes!" The most beautiful woman he had ever seen as she seemed to float down the aisle. But one of the memories Julian knew he would treasure the most was the look of complete contentment as he placed their daughter in her exhausted arms.

Julian heard a faint beep behind him, moving over he saw he had an incoming transmission from Earth. Puzzled, he pressed the receive button and Miles' smiling faec appeared on the screen.

"Hey buddy." Miles greeeted him. "Kira called me with the good news. Congratulations!"

"Thanks, I was meaning to call you but I had to clean up." Julian shurgged as he leant against the console.

"And probably paying worship to your daughter." Smiled Miles.

"Guilty as charged."

"I did the same thing." Miles assured his friend. "And I filled three holobooks just for Molly and another three for Kirayoshi."

"I've got the holocamera." Julian replied.

"How's Ezri doing?' Miles asked.

"Pretty well, considering. She's been asleep for nearly twelve hours now." Julian checked the chronometer quickly. 

"Have you named her yet?" Miles wondered.

"We have it down to a few names, Ezri went into labour earlier than either of us expected."

"Well, just wanted to congratulate you. I'm sending dome cigars your way too." Miles grinned.

"I'll look for them." Julian assured him.

"I'll call back soon. Keiko and Ezri will probably want to compare notes." Miles chuckled as Keiko swatted him form outside the comm range. "Be seeing you."

"Of course." Julian replied, closing the connection.

The Infirmary was silent again, except for Lise's enering his notes into the computer in the other room. Julian made his way across the room and, pulling up a stool took his place between the basinnet that held his daughter and the biobed where his wife lay. Laying his head down next to Ezri's arm he closed his eyes, trying to get a good night's sleep for what could be months.

And Julian dreamed. Of a little girl raising her arms to be carried by her father. A girl showing off a good grade to her parents as she bounded through the door. A young woman fussing with her hair for her first date with Ezri while Julian watched with a benevolent smile from the doorway. A woman being accepted into the school of her choice? Perhaps Starfleet? Uniforms falshed in Julian's mind. And Julian dreamed of a beautiful woman gliding down the aisle to her love while Julian held on tight to his love of his life, Ezri.

Someone died every minute and Julian could do nothing to stop them. Usually that vexed Julian but at that moment, as he lay sleeping between the two most important women of his life, who both slept also, Julian didn't care.

Loved it? Hated it? Want to hunt me down with pitchforks? E-mail me- I love it.

   [1]: mailto:sarcasticspice@julianezri.zzn.com



	2. Dream and Hope

Dream and Hope

Dream and Hope

The second of the series I've written in half an hour or less, I wrote it in a sentimental mood. Hope you enjoy it.

Ezri woke slowly, at first unsure of where she was. She tried to stretch, but an ache in her abdomen reminded her of her locatiion. She opened her eyes, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She had been exhausted, but for a good reason. She realized why she had woken up, beside her a small being was stirring, also opening it's eyes.

She shifted, to look over the small bassinet attached to her biobed. Beside her, Julian snored softly. He only snored when he was well and truly exhausted, so she let him slumber. She watched in adoration as her daughter surveyed the room around her, her little eyes taking in everything. Seeing Ezri, she stopped, staring her mother in the face.

Ezri reached out and lifted the little baby from the bassinet. The nurses had clad her in a snow white jumper, and to Ezri she looked like an angel. Safely ensconed in Ezri's arms, the little girl closed her eyes, content to sleep again. But before she did, Ezri slipped her finger into one small fist, to have it clasped by her baby.

Ezri studied her, the euphoria she had felt after the birth still with her. She could see so much of Julian in her. Her nose seemed so like his, and Ezri imagined a little gril's nose wrinkling in distaste when presented vegetables at dinner. The soft down of black hair, perhaps one day pulled into pigtails. Ezri had studied emotions her entire career, and she knew the word for the one she felt right then. _Love_.

But what to call her? She and Julian had created a list, possible names for a girl or a boy. Ezri chuckled when she thought of how hard Julian had worked to not find out his child's sex. The list had been slowly cut down, as they found reasons to reject names. They were going to look at the list yesterday, but the night before Ezri had woken up, water between her legs and prodded Julian from sleep. When she hissed at him in the dark he had leaped from bed, pulling on his clothes as quickly as possible and all but carrying Ezri to sickbay. Ezri couldn't help but giggle when thinking about the absurdity of it. She had been calm about the impending delivery… until the contractions started. After that, if Julian hadn't been the only doctor there she would have throttled him with both hands.

What would her future be like? Hopefully Ezri would be a better mother than her own, and be a loving and welcome prescence in her daughter's life. Deep Sapce Nine was mucher safer than at the end of the war, and Ezri imgained a little girl running down the dim corridors, perhaps with a playmate. Ezri could see her going to school, finding a passion in life. Perhaps her daughter would be an artist, or a Captain. Ezri peeked a glimpse at her husband, and decided that no matter what she wished for her daughter to find love, like Ezri had with Julian. Through the delivery when she had screamed and yelled, Julian had still stood there, waiting to collect their child as it entered the world. 

Dax had loved many times, and Ezri had learned to recognize it. The love that supported you when you felt lost, the love which sympathized with your sorrows, and then brought you joy, was the greatest kind and Ezri knew she was lucky to have found it. Looking down on the sleeping baby, she imagined her own daughter's loves. But of course, her daughter would first need a name.

Mentally, Ezri ran through the list of names she and Julian had thought of. None of them seemed quite right… except for one. Looking at her daughter, Ezri rolled it around in her head, sounding it out. It fit. With a smile, Ezri looked down upon her daughter.

"Welcome to the world, Zoe."

Gently she placed her baby back in the bassinet, and closed her eyes, ready to dream and hope.


End file.
